Beggar in the Rain

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本文写于2005年4月。是日寒风刺骨，淫雨霏霏，一切景致都显得萧瑟而惨淡。风雨中，一个乞丐哼着小曲缓缓而前，他虽衣衫褴褛，但脸上写满笑意……
 
It was pouring outside when I finally finished work. When I walked out of office I was feeling downcast and the rain added to my bad mood.  Worse, I hadn’t taken an umbrella.  I was only wearing a shirt, and the wind sent a shivering chill right through me.

Having waited 20 minutes, I still did not see my bus. All kinds of vehicles roared by one after another,including many buses but not mine.  I was getting impatient and increasingly annoyed.  I started to curse the rain, the bus driver, the bus company, and the city itself.

The rain made the street, the sidewalks and everything else, wet and dirty.  Repeated gusts of cold wind blew the rain directly into my face.  Have I done something really bad recently?

Just then a small object was moving in the dirty, wet street toward the bus stop.  I did not know what it was until it came closer—a beggar on a little cart, which was simply a board fixed on top of four bearings.  He had no feet.  He pushed the ground backward swiftly by his bare hand, and the cart carried him forward.  He did not care about the dirty road, the heavy rainfall. He was actually all wet through.

What really impressed me so much was his smiling face. While he was moving inch by inch toward the bus stop, he kept smiling, looking at me and a few others on the bus stop.  I heard him mumbling something that I did not understand.  Listening more attentively, I found that he was singing.  His face lit up when his eyes met mine.  I fixed my eyes on him until he pushed away, down the bus stop, into the heavy rain.

He didn"t seem to be affected at all by the rain, the miserable life, and he did not think that he was inferior.I read his cheerful face, on which "we are equal" was written.  Regarding himself as one of us normal people,he was confident and optimistic.  Furthermore, he was able to sing songs in the rain, in front of strangers. I can never do that, even when I am full of spirits.  I would be intimidated at how others might look at me.  I am too concerned at how I look like in others" eyes.

Immediately I felt quite shameful for my complaints. The poor beggar inspired me with his life attitude.  He taught me how to live a positive life.  I was then not feeling gloomy any more, and the bus came soon